http://www.peopleofwalmart.com
Posted on 02/21/2010 11:45:36 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
About six months ago Wal-Mart instituted a new reorganization at the store level and I would like to know in this space of time what your shopping experience at Wal-Mart has been.
Before the reorganization there seemed to be enough help to service the customers, keep the floor stocked and take care of the store. Since the reorganization it seems the opposite is true.
Six months ago the store management structure was changed along with hiring and staffing procedures.
Wal-Mart now has a store manager, at least two shift managers, they supposedly handle all day to day operations; Several assistant managers, a new position called Zone Merchandise Supervisor, and the Department Managers.
The Zone Merchandise Supervisors are in charge of what is known as pads, those are large areas of the store such as Apparel, Entertainment, Grocery and Hard Lines. These people took over several of the functions that the assistant managers had except they are paid hourly. They supervise the Department managers and merchandise their areas. A lot of responsibility for basically a two dollar an hour raise.
All hiring is done through a district hiring office, there is no hiring allowed at the individual store anymore. Wal-Marts plan is for most all stores to be 70% part time workers and 30% full time. All hiring needs for a store have to be in the form of a requisition to the district hiring office, especially if it is for a full time position.
All hiring and staffing needs are based on the allotted hours for a particular department and more importantly how many pieces of merchandise are sold on an hourly and day to day basis. These figures are updated on a monthly and quarterly basis.
The implementation of this plan though has lead to staffing shortages and an inability for management, especially the Zone Merchandise Supervisors to be able to do their jobs as originally outlined.
The following is a typical day in Wal-Mart Store management routines:
At around 7:00 AM the Store Manager tours the store with the day Shift Manager where they take notes of what needs to be done.
At 8:00 AM there is a management staff meeting where various notes are given out to the assistant managers for their areas.
At 8:30 AM the assistant managers meet with their area Zone Merchandise Supervisor to give them the notes they got and the ZMS divvies those notes out to the area Department Managers to get done usually by the close of business that day.
Next up is, starting at 9:00 AM the Shift Manager, and a assistant manager along with an area ZMS do a more detailed tour of an area where more notes are generated that will be given to a specific Department manager to do in a specific time frame.
These type of tours go on all day to catch every ZMS’ area to tour at least one department.
Then at approximately 2:30 p.m. and again at 4:00 p.m. ZMS’s and then assistants meet with senior store management to see how many notes were completed for the day.
So you see the new structure is about giving out tour notes, things that need to be addressed or done in departments , Zones of the store and, a lot of meetings.
One of Sam Walton’s most famous quotes for Associates was that,” We’ll take care of the associates and they will take care of the customers”. I am not sure I believe that is true anymore.
What have your shopping experiences been in Wal-Mart these last several months? Have you found things about the same or have you found customer service lacking? Are the front check- out lanes always crowded with not enough cashiers?
I would like to hear feedback on this in order to gauge what is going on in other parts of the country.
I usually shop in the early morning after work. Otherwise I couldn’t stand it. But that goes for everywhere.
Often they’re having their little pep rally while I’m there. I can’t help feeling sorry for the mandatory ooh-rahs required of the employees. Then once the meeting draws to a close, they park loaded pallets in the grocery section in such a way that I can’t travel from the aisle ends to the reefers lined up against the wall, or have to go around an aisle the other way because even the passage is blocked. Altho I guess it’s preferable to have to maneuver around a stationary object than to be randomly blocked by an ever-shifting hoard of shoppers & their children.
As a FReeper friend and I were discussing last night, Walmart has dropped thousands of national brands in favor of their prominently placed Great Value brand. Most of my purchases ARE generic these days, but for some items only my favorite will do - not the most expensive by any means, but what I can find no substitute for.
I’ve noticed that some price tags no longer have the tiny print at the top that shows true value - the price per ounce (or whatever). I’ve saved quite a few pennies by squinting at the small print & mourn the loss if the trend continues.
The other grocery stores & drug stores in my area are way over-priced.
ping for future read.
Oh, and every emploee interaction has been pleasant and helpful. We haven’t been taken over by the amigos yet. Sometimes the amigo section is cheaper - sometimes not.
I just hate the self-checkout. I have to slam my stuff into the bag to avoid interogation about my puchase not landing there. Grrrr!
“What you’re basically describing is a new Walmart organization that has added an extra layer of middle management (ZMS position), which I’m guessing will end up as clipboard-toting status-takers, and is attempting to institute more centralized control & decision making, removing the local ability to make decisions (like hiring, stock selection, etc.) that local personnel think are required to make their store more successful.”
Pretty much. I work with a lady whose husband was a upper level manager of some sort for Wal Mart. They’ve hired in a marketing guru whose sole aim is to turn Wal Mart into Target. In the restructuring of the management, many of the upper level managers were fired. Oh, they were given the chose to “apply” for other positions within the company but for many that would entail having to pack up and move to another state entirely.
I hate the Great VAlue crap, won’t buy it.
Why? Like it or not, Walmart is bigger and more successful than Target. Obviously they must have been doing SOMETHING right over the years to get that way.
This sounds like the Obama Syndrome. Put someone at the top of your #1 industry/world leading organization/country/whatever who hates it, wants to destroy what made it successful, and wants to tear it down by copying less successful wanna-be competitors. Self-loathing is such a disease.
Our local Walmart stores remodeled and moved departments around. Some good things came from that. On the other hand the nearest store seems to have a stocking problem. Shelves go without items for several weeks. No one seems to care.
There was a Sam’s next door to this Walmart. Some brilliant fool decided to convert it to cater to “business” customers. No regular sizes of anything. Many items not carried. That lasted about a year and they have now closed the Sam’s store. Maybe they are planning the same with our local Walmart.
I go to Walmart for items when I know that some brand names are cheaper there. As mentioned by a previous poster I wouldn’t go to Walmart to ask about products. On the other hand I don’t know any store who has competent people on the floor.
If they are doing this nation wide {likely are as they still limit per box sales in my area} then they will indeed become the next K-Mart of Big Box. Simply meaning there and hanging on but few even notice. You're right. I have notice Walmarts in my area carry no where near the ammo stock and VARIETY of such they once did. This trend had started before the shortage BTW. The market is going to be ripe soon for a suitable Walmart replacement just as Walmart replaced K-mart at the top of the list.
Sam Walton was out to make money and there is nothing wrong with that if done ethically and honestly. The current management of Walmart seems to be out to deliberately destroy the company and anger and in some policies like layaway closure hurt as many of their long time customers as possible.
Bentonville Corporate Management is detached from reality and their customer base. If policies aren't reversed I don't give Walmart another 5-10 years tops before we start seeing Walmarts closing as fast as they were once opening at their peak. In the mean time they were a main force in driving U.S. manufacturing to China and Mexico so I say their corporate fate would be a just one indeed.
There's several threads in the past week or so and many besides myself are seeing the same overall general detioration of Walmart. If Costco {??} would move into areas like Knoxville, Chattanooga, Tri-cities, Tennessee and the East Tennessee, Carolina's, Kentucky, and Georgia, area for example they would get the business. Walmart is already on a decline there and any new full service Big Box would likely easily fill the void Walmart has created and drive them out.
I find my local gun shop is getting more ammo, even .380, than the Walmart . We have a Gander Mountain but they are way out of line with higher ammo prices .
Cabela’s works for me as well as ammoman.com who ships postage paid .
I pick stuff out.
I put it in the cart.
I take it to the checkout.
I pay.
I leave.
(You did ask.)
The Obama Syndrome. I agree with you. Walmart's time has come and gone, and their days are numbered. The original visionary entrepreneur who understood how the real world works has died, and the successful organization he built has become fat, dumb & lazy and allowed its management to fall into the hands of second-rate morons and looters who will milk it until there's nothing left by a husk.
“I find it amazing that the pricing is location specific.”
I’m amazed, that you find this amazing.
Do you desire uniform outcomes?
Sigh! Now I go to a fabric store,usually in Sioux
Falls when I visit my daughter- hit the sales which are actually very good- planning ahead so I have some idea of what I want for fabric.
Seriously it is tough buyin fabric any more, almost all, if not entirely, it is made overseas.
I agree that the quality of the stores, clientele and employees varies from location to location. ...Having been born and raised in Dallas, I understand exactly the situation you described regarding the store on Forest in South Dallas.
I actually live in Grapevine, Dallas59, but “my” W-M store is located in Euless on 121 at Cheek-Sparger. The store opened as a Super Center about 10 years ago and I shop there about twice a week. It is always well stocked, very clean and has plenty of open check-outs without long lines. Most of the full time employees have been there for many years and, based on my conversations with them, they are very pleased with their non-union wages and health care coverage. The employees are very friendly, usually smiling and very helpful to anyone asking questions (such as how to prepare some strange looking vegetable). ....The parking lot is always clean and there are plenty of guys that retrieve the carts from the various places in the parking area. ........Location, location, location!
The local Walmart managers no longer have anything to do with what is going on as far as non stocked or missing items. Corporate management and their insane buying and inventory {on going lack of} practices Walmart wide are causing this to happen. The store managers I have talked to realize it. They don't like it. But they can't change it. In todays economy Walmarts should be packed with once who once bought in more upscale stores. In other words times should be good for Walmart Corp and there is by no means any good reason to have the policies they currently have.
The nearest Wal-mart to our house is in Carson City, Nevada. The store is always well-organized and clean. The aisles are wide and everything is nicely labeled. The one thing I've noticed lately is the expansion of Wal-mart knock-offs of such items as A1 steak sauce, Raisin Bran cereal, and Scrubbing Bubbles sink and tub cleaner.
Personally, I avoid the self-serve lines. I prefer dealing with real people. I have noticed that the older friendly greeters seem to have been replaced by listless younger women.
I love that web site. Check it every couple of days. Always good for a laugh. I plan to contribute a photo one day when I have to go to WalMart which, btw, I hate to do. By the time I’m done, I always feel sick. I feel slightly nauseous and on the verge of a head ache. My theory is bad air circulation plus fumes from a multitude of products and people.
I had something happen last fall I could not believe. I was replacing a bunch of fishing tackle mainly lures and Walmart had the Rapala's behind lock and key. Yep that meant waiting on a member of management and having him hold my hand while I made my choices. I turned around and there were far more expensive lures on the shelves unprotected.
Wally has a lot of .22,.40, and 357 sig. around here along with the shot shells you mentioned .That’s all she wrote in handgun ammo.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com
The photos are highly entertaining but the titles and captions are are even more so. There are almost 1000 photos in the collection now and almost every one is worth the time to view. Anyone who hasn’t seen it, you are in for a treat!
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